States Neglect Water Safety, Gao Study Says

Most state inspection programs to ensure the safety of public water systems are in a shambles, a General Accounting Office study released on Wednesday said.

Concerns about the purity of the nation`s water supply have been heightened by Milwaukee`s problems with its drinking water.

Although Wisconsin officials said the Milwaukee water system had been checked in 1991, the study found that 45 states do not evaluate all components of their public water systems recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The study said cash-strapped state agencies` conduct haphazard inspections of public water systems and fail to make sure that problems are corrected after being identified.

The Environmental Protection Agency called the inspections the ``backbone of state drinking water programs,`` but the EPA has done nothing to improve state compliance or obtain more financing for the states, the study said.

``It is fair enough to say that without improvement in the states` sanitary programs, consumers run a higher risk of being confronted with contaminated water,`` said Steve Elstein, an author of the study and assistant director of the GAO, the auditing arm of Congress.

Federal environmental officials did not take issue with the study.

``It didn`t come as a surprise to us,`` said Robert Blanco, director of the enforcement and program implementation division within the EPA`s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water.

Federal financing for all state water quality programs amounts to $55 million a year. Elstein said that was a fraction of the amount needed.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who released the study, has introduced a bill to allocate $3.6 billion in the next four years for states to upgrade water systems.